A Scary Story: For the Love of Maria

Maria loved Thomas passionately. Some may have called it obsessively. But then maybe they were never really in love. Maria learned from her parents what real love was all about. Unfortunately with that kind of love bad things happen. When Maria's mother found out that her father was having an affair with her best friend, well let's just say it ended badly. Maria was a bitter orphan.

Maria inherited the house from her parent's after their untimely deaths and promptly moved her sparse belongs into it. Since the master bedroom was roomy and faced the lake she decided that in spite of the horrible happenings in that room that she wanted to make it her own. Thomas and she had been married a short period of time and she didn't feel that it was necessary to tell him about her parents grisly end. During their short courtship all was passion and romance.

She had the bedroom refurnished before they moved in. New carpet was a necessity. The walls also needed to be recovered with new wallpaper after the damage was repaired. There was no way that the stains would come out of the beautiful hardwood floors which was a damned shame. She really loved the oak floors that her mother had covered with carpet. Maria was practical though and had the floor covered with new carpet.

The furniture must stay though. She loved the heavy oak furniture and the standing mirror that her mother spent many hours in front of must remain. She remembered being a little girl admiring herself in the mirror in her mothers gowns and high heels. Lying on the bed she could seeing their reflections in the mirror as she and Thomas made love. Thomas was everything to her, just like Daddy was to her mother.

Maybe some people would have been bothered by sleeping in their parent's bedroom, making love with their spouses. It didn't bother Maria though. It didn't even bother her that her mother had murdered her father in the same room. What did bother her was that Thomas started staying out late many nights. He would come home drunk and she smelled another woman on him. He of course denied it. After having him followed though her worst suspicions were true.

Maria felt bile and rage well up in her throat. She knew how to deal with the betrayal though. Her mother had taught her well. As Thomas lay sleeping in a stupor, she hacked him to pieces with her mother's axe. Getting rid of the evidence was the hard part. It was quite a chore to have to cut him up and feed him to the fishes in the lake. Bones don't burn very well in a fireplace. It took her over a week to get rid of him. When she was finished though she was able to clean up the bedroom, change the bedding and all was well.

Ironically Maria was a clean freak. She was really infuriated by the little dark spot that she kept rubbing off on the mirror. Her mirror was her pride and joy as it was a family heirloom. It still hurt when she thought of the many times that she and Thomas had made love and she could see their reflections in the mirror. Now it only brought back painful memories. She was still haunted by his betrayal.

Maria would wake up in the morning and the spot that she removed the day before on her beautiful mirror would be back. Each day it seemed to grow a little more. She would clean it frantically and the next day it would be back. Was it a defect in the glass? One morning she noticed that it had become even larger and began to take on an ominous shape. No it couldn't be, but it seemed to take on the shape of a blood splatter. She couldn't take it in to be replaced. What if someone became suspicious? Already some were asking about where Thomas had gone.

Maria turned the mirror to the wall and slept fitfully. A month to the day that she had murdered her husband she awoke to see the mirror facing her. In hideous Technicolor, the mirror replayed the murder she committed in front of her eyes. Thomas's face in all of it's horror leaped out at her from her beloved mirror.

When the maid came in a week later she found Maria dead in bed. The stench was awful. The look of terror on her face was one that her maid would never forget. The room although pristinely clean reeked of death. The mirror stood an innocent sentinel to the horror before it. After the funeral, the Realtor had the house cleaned and put it up for sale, all furnishings were included.